Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the opportunity to present to the Minister and his staff here today. I have to say that expanding the eHealth is one thing that caught my attention. We had talked about that, we have made some progress, but I’m wondering what are the limitations here and how are we addressing them. We have been talking about this for years now. In discussions earlier today with the Mental Health Commission of Canada, it was also raised as an
important element in addressing mental health issues across the North. I know the Minister is aware of that and I will be interested in how that’s being incorporated into the expansion in our effective use of eHealth.
The funding to support the budget includes funding to support the establishment of child and family services committees. I’m very happy to see that. Obviously, last year we also included funding and I don’t believe there were any committees established. My question on that is: Is the new funding additional? Will we now establish the committees we meant to last year and didn’t, plus the new ones we had hoped we would be doing annually to do the catch-up that’s required here? We’ve invested a lot of money into that work, made recommendations, and I was glad to see the House support that work last year but disappointed in what was achieved.
The capital planning study for the Stanton Territorial Hospital is obviously very critical for this territorial facility. I know this is a multi-stage process, but my question there is: Will we see recommendations for actual work to begin, recognizing that it likely won’t be the full plan or anything and that this is a highly complex undertaking? We are fortunate in having a very solid, long-lived building as a base to work on, but it does have serious limitations in its organization relative to the effective delivery of services. We want to get going on that. We recognize that costs will only go up. I think we’ve been waiting over a decade now for this. It’s been pushed back and pushed back. I’m glad to see that work is happening. Will it result in something recognizing that planning will go on? Can we get started on some improvements that are desperately needed in that facility?
There are many needs in this department for the improvement of efficiency and sustainability. One of these, one amongst many, is the drug cost issue. I know that provinces across Canada are getting together. I’d like to know that we are part of that and we will be enjoying some of the benefits with what that process has to offer.
Connecting patients through services in the timeliest manner. One of our serious costs, I think about 12 percent of our appointments made for outpatients are missed, and for operations and so on. That’s a serious hit to the system, it’s well known. The Minister talks about modernizing our Medical Travel Policy and the full potential of electronic communications. I’ve made suggestions on that. There are mechanisms used by the provinces for just such things. The latest example I sent was the example from New Brunswick of registering vehicles. It’s just a digital communication that goes out there automatically and we need to come up with that and start plugging that cost.
The Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan. I certainly look forward to having a good look at that. Again, I will be looking for a commitment to prevention, as well as addressing the current situations with strong community involvement. I also want to see us meeting our responsibilities rather than shuffling our responsibilities off onto communities. I will be looking forward to reviewing that document.
The Mental Health and Addictions Forum. I appreciate the opportunity to nominate individuals to that. I hope, and I’m sure, there will be a good group of people in that forum to provide advice. There is sort of a happy coincidence right now with the national strategy that’s coming out from the Mental Health Commission. I think we want to follow up on any opportunities for collaboration there. I also have to say that I hope the Minister will also, besides the forum, listen a little bit to committee members who make a real effort to be in touch with our constituents on these issues, and they have brought many of those issues to the table along with recommendations to address them.
Lastly, I’ll leave the rest to detail here. Maybe second last here. Prevention is mentioned a few times throughout the Minister’s introductory remarks, which I really appreciate. To quote, “prevention is the most effective way.” I can’t agree more. I’m saying to the Minister: Where is the Mental Health Court? Where are the new early childhood development programs for the early years? Clearly a health responsibility. Where is the integrated case management promised now for several years?
Now, actually my final comment is, I appreciate the ongoing effort and challenge of medical travel, but we need to get that working. The most basic administrative process is in Blue Cross coverage and reimbursements. It simply revolves on a wheel. The shepherding of patients through the medical travel process in an effective way so that they’re not missing appointments and so that efficient travel appointments are lined up and they see their doctors. It’s not happening. Providing timely results to travelling patients, these things are all what I call yo-yo issues. They keep coming back. We take them to the Minister, the department works to get them resolved, and on a case-by-case basis they might, but back they come again, identical. I really am looking for some work at a fundamental level. I know the Minister is aware of this and has expressed – and actually past Ministers have too. I really hope solutions can be found, again recognizing the complexity and the huge amount of medical travel that we deal with to provide the good services that we do to our people.
I do hear, when it comes right down to treatment, I hear very few complaints amongst our population. There might be complaints getting there, but when
they do get treatment, it’s very good treatment and I wanted to pass that on to the Minister. I’ll leave it at that.